Stefan Everts Tops Namur GP

By Freelance | 8/9/2004 12:00 AM

Stefan Everts, of the Rinaldi Yamaha team, recorded his 78th Motocross Grand Prix win of his career, this time around the treacherous Namur circuit in Belgium, yesterday. In front of around 30,000 Belgian spectators, Everts went 1-3 to snatch victory from French rider Mickael Pichon of the Tiscali Honda Martin team. Pichon won the last three GPs and also produced a moto win in Namur, although a crash in the opening moto cost Pichon the overall victory. It was a great weekend for Everts all round as he celebrated the birth of his first child, a son named Liam on the Friday night of the GP.

Pichon though missed his opportunity for victory by scoring a fourth place finish in the opening moto, and his 4-1 results were only good enough for third overall. Second place in Namur went to New Zealand's Josh Coppins of the CAS Honda team.

"I won this for my son," Everts said. "This is the best weekend of my life, and Friday night was the best day of my life. I couldn't ask for more than what I have now, it's just such a happy time for me. The emotions I have had this weekend have been amazing."

In the MX2 class, the victory went to Italian Antonio Cairoli who rides for the DeCarli Yamaha team. Cairoli picked up a second place in the opening moto and then finished in fourth place in the second race. The Italian nipped CAS Honda rider Jussi Vehvilainen who scored 6-3 for second overall, and Australian rider Andrew McFarlane went 5-8 for third overall. Series leader Ben Townley won the second moto of the day, although he DNFed the opening moto with a fuel problem. Marc De Reuver the other lead rider in the KTM team also DNFed the opening moto, and finished second in moto two. For Cairoli is was a big day.

"My first Grand Prix victory," Cairoli said. "It's nice, I tried to race with Chicco (Chiodi) in the first moto, but he was too strong and I slower for second. In the second moto I didn't have a good start and finished in fourth place, which was good enough for the win."